Irene Kim Shares Her 25-Step Korean Beauty Routine—And Her "Super Secret" Sculpting Tool Found in the Kitchen

[soft music]

[speaking Korean]

Hi everyone, it's Irene Kim here

and I'm very, very excited to walk you through

my daily skin-care routine and my daily makeup look.

First, I'm going to wash my face.

Lather it up.

Now the next step is, toner!

This is just a brand, a dermatologist brand

from Korea that I've been using for years.

And it's just very, very good for irritated skin.

So I get the ears, behind the neck.

Don't forget this area.

Next up, is my secret serum,

that I get, it's actually the leftovers

that I get after my facials that I do once a week in Korea.

And, the dermatologist just packs it up

and I can travel with it.

I don't really know what it is but it works.

And then I have my face mask.

This is also a Korean brand.

It's called BNV Biolab.

And this is just like another moisturizing mask.

Oh and this is tricky because there's like leftovers

on the front part.

And like, I usually put it on before I put the mask on.

Like you don't wanna waste.

Oh I look crazy.

Oh my gosh.

I look like the Scream character.

I'm gonna put the leftovers on my legs.

Don't wanna waste it.

I'm going to take this serum,

it's just vitamin C serum from SkinCeuticals.

For me, I consider skincare as eating.

So whatever you put into your body,

will reflect on you, know your energy

and you have to customize.

It depends on the day and how your skin feels.

Like what city you're in, what environment you're in.

Right now I'm traveling so much so I take extra

care to moisturize to give my skin the right food for it.

Next up, another serum.

I'm going to show you my super secret beauty tool.

Ta-da!

A spoon guys.

So you don't need any fancy tools.

I keep it in the fridge for a couple minutes

and then you just de-puff.

So, the first part is you go like, up along the cheek-bone.

And just do upward movements.

See the difference?

No?

Yes?

It just like circulates the blood flow on your face

and really just like drains the lymphs.

And then, the edge part, what I do is

I take it, and it's like you're scooping up your jawline.

The [speaking Korean].

You know, sometimes for events like you're wearing

a low cut top or a dress.

You wanna really get that nice line.

And just like, drain it all out!

Drain out the bad vibes!

Now that I had my serum and I've de-puffed my face,

I'm going to go into my moisturizer.

This is something that I discovered

as my skin started to breakout

in the beginning stages of my career.

One of the reasons why I was breaking out,

I didn't realize, was I was allergic to oils.

And I used to slather coconut oil all over my face

because like, some article on Google said

it was like the best thing for you

and then I went to my dermatologist, I took an allergy test.

Everything is not for everyone.

And the next step is, another moisturizer!

It's a lot heavier than the first cream that I used.

But because I'm doing like a dewy, skin look today,

I'm just gonna layer on a little bit more.

Sunblock.

Sunblock, I put on religiously.

I even put it on in the evenings.

Not before bed, but I'm going out at night,

and I have to get ready, I'll put on sunblock.

Because there are also a lot of

UV rays in lighting obviously.

So I do not leave the house without sunblock.

Even if I'm going to a deli to get milk or something,

I will put on sunblock when I leave the house.

And then, the next step is, more sunblock!

So this is a BB cream with SPF.

This consistency is a lot more like a foundation.

The other one is kind of like a lightweight serum.

But I like to use this also as a base.

Next step, I'm going to apply my foundation.

When I took a allergy test with my dermatologist in Korea,

she recommended these stick foundations

and I've been using them for like five or six years now.

[soft music]

So I'm going for like a, my everyday go-to makeup look.

It's like this, kind of peachy, dewy, pinky look.

So I'm gonna take this color, Peaches and Cream

all over my, eye.

Oh it smells peachy too.

Then I'm gonna take a brush and use the same color

and just like, go under part of my eye.

I like to go under because it just gives an illusion

of more depth and definition

because I do have you know, very almond shaped eyes.

Oh yeah.

Before I layer on more shadow, I'm going to do eyeliner.

So one thing that I have a tip for, for eyeliner is,

you know how some people or most people will angle your face

into the mirror and do the eyeliner?

And then come back and realize like it's too high, too low?

So what I do is, I look in the mirror and I just look

straight forward and then,

I shape my eyeliner.

So you can get the exact

angle that you want.

Hey, that's pretty good.

And then I'm gonna go in and just fill in my lash line.

It's time for the most important part of my routine.

Is curling my eyelashes.

I'm very, very particular about my eyelashes.

In general, I think Asian's eyelashes are very straight

and to curl them, is just like,

a whole a big deal for me.

They need to always be curled.

It's like you need to do like an upward movement

as you like clamp but like soft clamps.

So, you start deep in and then go woop, woop, woop, woop.

And then you get this like nice swoosh curl.

Oh yeah, see?

See how that like opens up my eyes?

I'm gonna go back to my pallet.

This one is just peachy.

I'm just gonna go and swoop it across

so you get this like, semi-ombre effect.

And then I'm going to take a liner brush

and use the same color just on the corner of my eye.

One thing about Korean makeup, it's all in the really,

really, tiny details.

Even if it's like, the smallest dot or smallest

like swipe of a certain color of eyeshadow or layering,

it makes such a huge difference.

I'm gonna take Fresh Picked and then I'm just gonna go

like, right along the bottom lash.

So I'm just gonna take one of the darker colors

and just go right in the middle of my bottom lash line,

I'm not gonna go all the way through.

And then it just like opens it up magically.

Okay, next step is, mascara.

So this is just like a mascara booster thing.

I'm just gonna put a few swipes on.

So when I apply mascara, I don't use the full brush.

I like to use the tip and just like.

And this my beauty hack that I learned

from makeup artists in Korea.

I probably wouldn't recommend you to try this at home

because it involves fire.

And a broken end of a used Q-tip.

So fancy.

So what I do is, I take the lighter and heat up

the wooden stick.

Maybe like four seconds.

And just like use your hands to see if it's warm.

Then I'm just gonna curl it up.

I know some people heat up the eyelash curler

but what the heat does, I don't know maybe it's

like scientific or a reaction.

But it takes off all the excess clumpiness

of the mascara as well.

So as it curls.

See, like you can see the excess mascara.

Like it removes it too.

So it gives a lot more of a natural eyelash look.

Make sure it's a wooden Q-tip because if it's plastic,

like obviously it's gonna melt.

So I just love bushy brows.

I think they're natural and beautiful.

Like even these little baby hairs.

I just leave them.

And I'm gonna use my little baby

brow mascara from Benefit.

The name is so cute, Gimme Brow.

Gimme, gimme.

This side is up and this side is down

so I used the mascara to like brush this side up

to make it more even.

The next step is, blush!

So this is the bottom part where it has the blush.

And then the stop part is, twist it open.

[gasping]

Ta-da!

It's a heart!

So cute right?

So I'm just gonna stamp it.

So I'm just gonna go in the center.

[giggling]

And then I have my three lip colors.

Two of them are from Giorgio Armani

and one is from Fenty.

So I'm gonna use the first one.

This is, Lip Maestro.

And just like, go all over my lip.

And use my fingers to just blend.

I just like the natural look.

And then take the pinkier color

and just go in the center

to give us that ombre effect.

Just a few dabs.

And then I just add a touch of gloss.

And I think I'm done!

Take the clips off.

I'm just gonna brush through my hair with my tangle teaser.

People make fun of me all the time for carrying this around

but it's literally the best brush ever.

Make sure you don't have any lipstick on your teeth.

And that's it!

I'm done.

This is just like my daily look that I do everyday

for events or when I have to do my makeup on my own.

Just giving the MFBB look.

My face but better, with the glowy healthy skin.

Make sure you guys you know, it's just as important

what you put in and the different steps

that you have for your skincare routine

as much as you know, the garnish, which is the makeup.

Thank you guys so much for follow along with me.

Bye!

[speaking Korean]

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